McKenzie and I spent all of last weekend in the hospital … but as you can see from the pic, she got the worst end of the deal. You can read more about our Our Hospital Adventure on my personal blog, but the short story is that she is home now, and we are waiting for a follow up with a specialist at Children’s hospital.

Where We Have Been

The Lord has really filled our ministry calendar this year, so Benjy has been busier than ever before. He preached at Rolling Hills Baptist Church in McNeil, MS, two weeks ago. What a sweet congregation they are! I don’t think we have ever been in a church where the members were more friendly. Every single person made a point to come shake our hand and welcome us at some point during the morning service, and the same was true of the evening service. We were told that their late pastor, Bro. Joey Tatum, had really emphasized the importance of making each other feel welcome in God’s house … and they have certainly followed through with his vision.

Last weekend, Benjy led the time of praise for both morning services at Roseland Park Baptist Church, and he also led the praise time for the evening service … but he slipped out a bit early and scooted over to Union Baptist Church to preach their evening message. WHEW! He was really tired by the time he brought us home from the hospital late Sunday night.

Where We Are Going

Next weekend, we’ll be back at Roseland Park Baptist for all three services … we certainly have enjoyed the fellowship of Bro. Kriss Haymes and that congregation this year. They are working hard to find a new music minister, and we are praying that the Lord will help them recognize the man HE sends their way.

We will be in revival at West Poplarville Baptist Church in Poplarville, MS, the following week. It is our last revival of 2008, and we invite you to join us there. I’m sure Bro. Kevin Wilcox and Bro. Niki Lee will be pleased to see you. Bro. Kevin told me that the church will be serving a meal each evening an hour or so before the revival service starts at 7:00pm, and they will be asking for a donation to help offset the revival expenses and to purchase some items for their fast growing children’s dept.

What We Are Praying

We are praying for God to help His people stand strong this week and honor His great name. The time has come for us to let go of our materialistic pursuits and focus on strengthening our relationship with Our Father. The best way to do that is by getting to know Him through His Word. If you struggle with your Bible study, you might be interested in an article I wrote last year about How to Read the Bible and Understand it Better. In the next few days, I hope to write a couple more articles about Bible study tools that have been super helpful to me. You’ll be able to find those articles posted on my personal blog Are You For Real?, but I’ll also make link to them from our next newsletter.

What’s New on Our Blogs?

• Are You For Real?

10 GOOD Things Found In Hell?

8 Things NOT Found In Hell, and Why You DON’T Want To Go There!

• Home Improvements and Gardening

Preparing for Unwanted Winter Guests

Is It Really Necessary To Rinse Fresh Picked Berries?

We invite you to visit our blogs and participate in the conversation by leaving a comment on any post that interests you. You know how we LOVE good conversation!

On His Exciting Journey,

Benjy enjoyed the company of his high school buddies after he preached for Homecoming 2008 at Crossroads Pentecostal Church in Lucedale, MS two weeks ago. We don’t get to see these guys very often, so there is always a lot of catching up to do when we go home.

For this special service Benjy sang a song that is new to us called Let the Veil Down. It is a awesome worship song with a beautiful message. Have you heard it? Here are a few lines of the lyrics:

Behold, hanging before you is the sacrifice of God,
The lamb, pure and holy, creation stands in awe,
Removing all that hinders the worship of our King,
As He cries, “It is Finished,” all heaven sings,

Let the veil down, let the praise go up,
Let the veil down, let the praise go up,
Let the veil down,
We’re in the presence of the Lord!

The Lord gave Benjy a very interesting sermon to go with this song. It’s about the ‘veils’ in our life that separate us from God and how we need to tear those veils down before we can praise Him. I didn’t get to hear him preach it at Crossroads because I was home with a miserable cold, but I SO enjoyed talking about it and researching it with him the week before. It’s such a blessing to dig into God’s Word together.

Last Sunday we were back at Roseland Park Baptist Church. They have been without a music minister this summer, so Benjy is filling in when we have a Sunday off. Next Sunday he will be preaching at Rolling Hills Baptist Church in McNeil, MS. This will be our first time to worship with that congregation, so we are looking forward to that.

Last night Benjy led in a time of praise at Roseland Park’s banquet for widows which was hosted by the deacons. This is an annual event where the deacons serve the widows of the church a nice meal and the church provides a time of music, testimony, and drama. What a sweet ministry! Here are a few pics of the evening:

The evening included an interpretive dance to the song I’ll Praise You in The storm.	The drama was performed by the youth girls and was directed by Ms. Rachael Hey.
Pastor Kriss Haymes and Benjy.	Bro. Melvin Kulmann introduced the man responsible for the good cooking! Bro. David Lossett has a ministry of cooking for all types of church events such as Church Anniversary’s, Association meetings, and banquets.
Each deacon introduced the widows in his care group and gave a word of encouragement.	More pics of this event can be seen in our Ministry Photo Album.

What’s New on Our Blogs?

• Are You For Real?

How to Stop Toxic Thoughts from Poisoning Your Brain

Do You Have Trouble Completing Your Tasks?

• Home Improvements and Gardening

Preparing for Unwanted Winter Guests

Is It Really Necessary To Rinse Fresh Picked Berries?

We invite you to visit our blogs and participate in the conversation by leaving a comment on any post that interests you. You know how we LOVE good conversation!

On His Exciting Journey,

As you can see, we’re eating again! We had dinner on the grounds at First Baptist Lumberton yesterday after the morning revival sermon [visit FBC Lumberton online]. Benjy is preaching this time, and Bro. Monty Bounds, music evangelist from Hattiesburg, MS, is leading our praise time. We enjoyed spending a few minutes getting to know Bro. Monty at the dinner, and we appreciated all the good food that was served.

The morning service was opened with a beautiful song from Bro. Monty and a flag march was presented by the young people. I LOVE the colorful flags they so proudly carried. They made two marches around the sanctuary then lined up at the front for the ending of Bro. Monty’s song.

We noticed that the congregation has grown significantly since we were here last, and the biggest growth was undoubtedly in the number of children. We were told that nearly a dozen children were baptized as a result of this summer’s Vacation Bible School. Just LOOK at all those precious faces, eager to hear Bro. John Sapp give the children’s sermon!

When he pulled out the blindfold and selected an assistant from the crowd, Bro. John had the attention of the adults too! While the young lady stood blindfolded, he gave an object lesson about God’s invisible qualities which are as real and secure as anything we can see with our eyes.

Bro. John has also prepared a special event for each service … “The Witness Stand.” One member of the congregation has been asked beforehand to give a witness of God’s activity in their life. Bro. Frank Potter is shown here giving his witness in the AM service. Isn’t this a WONDERFUL way to fulfill God’s desire mentioned in the Psalms … “Oh that men would praise me for my wonderful works!” Bro. John also challenged the congregation to be prepared to take the witness stand in our workplaces this week as God will certainly give us opportunities to praise Him in our daily lives.

The revival at First Baptist Lumberton will start at 7:00pm each evening, and it runs through Friday night. We invite you to come out and worship with us.

What’s New on Our Blogs?

• Are You For Real?

How to Learn the Language of God and Pray Effective Prayers

• Home Improvements and Gardening

Low Sugar Strawberry Jam Recipes

On His Exciting Journey,

We were blessed by the presence of the Holy Spirit in the services, which lasted through Wed. evening, and we were also blessed to see so many of our friends come together to worship with us. Some of you may not know that Unity was our home church when Benjy surrendered to preach in 1999. He served as music minister there for 13 years before we left to pursue an evangelism ministry in the spring of 2003.

Another Opportunity

We’ll be resting up this week and preparing for our next meeting which will be a full week revival at First Baptist Lumberton starting next Sunday morning, Oct. 5, and ending Friday evening, Oct. 10. Bro. John Sapp invited Benjy to preach this revival also, giving him his second opportunity to stand in the pulpit and speak during this special event in the life of a church.

We are looking forward to being with Bro. John and Ms. Paula during this revival, and we invite all of you to come out and worship with us. It is so encouraging to us when we see the faces of our friends from other churches sitting in the congregation. We believe it honors the Lord when we join together to pray and worship with our sister churches.

Visit Our Frontier!

I love the sign that hung over the exits of our previous church. It said, “You are now entering the mission field.” More and more I am learning the truth of that statement. The WHOLE world is our mission field … the hardware store, the garden center, the supermarket, and the sanctuary … not just far away lands, though God may choose to increase our borders. There is no place a believer can go where God does not expect him to interact with others with godly love and the intention of somehow introducing them to the “Hope of Every Heart.” With that in mind, we invite you to join our family as we explore the opportunities of our frontier and share our experiences online through our three websites.

• Are You For Real? Real Life and Health in Line With God’s Word.
  • How Healthy Meditation Can Make Us Successful
  • Chicory: The Root of My Delight
  • Pit Crew School
    
• Home Improvements and Gardening
  • Low Sugar Strawberry Jam Recipes
  • Leafy Bundles
  • The Dancing Washing Machine
• Our Ministry Journey
  • Who Is Their God?
  • An Unsettling Mix of Beauty and Darkness
  • Tag Team Preaching

On His Exciting Journey,

Who Is Their God?

Now that I’ve told you about the natural beauty in British Columbia, I’d like to tell you about the dark side … the spiritual darkness that is so prevalent in people of the mega-city of Vancouver.

Located in the Pacific North West, the city of Vancouver, British Columbia is about 3,000 miles away from south MS. It is one of the world’s largest cities with a population of approximately 2.2 million people.

Vancouver is a port city with one of the world’s busiest International Airports. Because of the large number of people traveling in and out of Vancouver, it has become known as the Gateway to the world. It is a beautiful city with a mountainous backdrop, and people from many different nations call it home.

But because of the influences of so many different nationalities and belief systems, it has become a city shrouded in spiritual darkness. Each people group has brought with it the gods of their nation … and temples built for their worshipers fill the city.

We were encouraged, though, when we met with a small organization of Christian brothers and sisters in Vancouver. Janet, on the left, serves as the Mobilization Coordinator for the Canadian Convention of Southern Baptists. She took us on a tour of the city of Vancouver which ended up here at the Collingwood Neighborhood House where Vancouver Baptist have started their newest church plant. Mississippi has partnered with a Vancouver church and together we support the full financial needs of this church plant, along with the pastor’s salary, and the salary of Donna (pictured right), who is a North American Missions Board Missionary from Vicksburg, MS.

We had a very informative meeting with Donna and Pastor Daniel about the work they are doing at the Urban Village Church, which meets in a room rented from a community center in downtown Vancouver. Daniel and Donna have been very creative in the way they approach ministry in this urban setting, and their small congregation is beginning to grow.

UVC had it’s first baptism in June of this year. Because the church meets in a community center, they had no baptistery, so they held the baptism service in the local park with a large kiddie pool. What a witness to the people who happened to be in the park that day!

Only a few blocks form the Urban Village Church is Chinatown.

Life in this area is filled with sights, sounds, and SMELLS that are strangely different from anything we know in our area. Look closely at the man in the white butcher suit … that is a whole pig on his shoulder!

Yep … that’s a pig alright!
You can see the open air markets that line the street. Julie and I walked in and out of one of the markets quickly … we had seen and smelled enough!

This is one of the many Buddhist Temples visited by the large Chinese population. Buddhists believe in reincarnation and karma.

These men are Sikh (pronounced ‘seek’), and they are flooding into Vancouver from East India. We saw them everywhere we went … even in the outlying areas of Vancouver. They are easily recognizable with their turbans and uncut beards.

Here are a couple of the Sikh temples in the area. They believe in one god that is multiplied into many forms and they believe in reincarnation and karma. There is also a large number of Hindu’s in Vancouver from East India. They are less recognizable than the Sikh because they do not wear the turbans. The Hindu worship thousands of gods, and they believe in reincarnation.

There are also many, many Muslims in the city, and of course they have their temples. Their women are easily recognizable because of the headdress they are required to wear.

And then there is a religion that has been in BC for many, many generations … the religion of the First Nations, a nature worshiping people.

They have Longhouses, rather than temples, and these are scattered all over the Provence of British Columbia. Public schools are not allowed to teach anything of the Christian faith, yet school children are taken to their local Longhouse for a lesson in First Nation culture and religion.

But West Coast Baptists are in the process of taking the gospel to the people, and we were blessed to serve one Sunday with Gateway Baptist Church. Gateway is one of only eleven Baptist churches in the Vancouver area that meet in an actual church building … and they are making great use of this facility by sharing it with four separate congregations. Here you see Julie, Benjy, and Vic visiting with members of the Sudanese congregation.

And here you see Vic, Tammie, Julie, and Christina, a beautiful young lady from the island country of Myrnmar (Burma). She works with the Burmese congregation at Gateway Baptist Church. There is also, a Spanish congregation and an English congregation meeting in this facility.

So there you have it … our view of the many faces of Vancouver, a city with many gods but no real hope. Here you see Benjy overlooking bay area of Vancouver, it’s called Prospect Point. What a fitting place to stand and consider what God is calling us to do in order to help reach this city with the Good News of Jesus Christ, son of the One True God, and the hope of every heart.

The Director of Vancouver Baptist Missions sent us this picture of the memorial gateway at Peace Park. This park is a partnership between Canada and the U.S., and the gateway gives free access to either country. Vancouver Baptists want to know how we can partner with them and help share the gospel with the people of their beautiful city. We are praying and seeking God’s answer to this question. Will you join us?

On His Exciting Journey,

Because there are so many photos in this presentation, I broke it into two separate posts. Here is the link to part two, Who Is Their God?

Light and Dark

British Columbia is an unsettling mix of natural beauty and spiritual darkness. It would seem that in a place filled with the beauty of God’s creative handiwork, there would be a natural desire to worship the God of creation. But we learned that there is a dark side to BC, and we would like to share our experience with you. Before I tell you about the darkness, though, I’d like to give you some background information and show you a bit of the natural beauty of British Columbia, Canada. It truly is a showcase of some of God’s best work!

This September Benjy and I have been married 25 years!
To celebrate this milestone, we wanted to do something really special, so we decided to take a two week vacation to the beautiful mountains of British Columbia, Canada. This picture was made in Whistler, BC, home of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Isn’t it a beautiful place?

We became intrigued with this area when we became friends with Vic and Julie, long time residents of BC. God brought Julie into my life through the Christian Women’s Blog Ring. We became easy friends, and we started doing Bible studies together online. Julie regularly sends us photos of their beautiful mountains, waterfalls, and moss covered trails, so when it came time to make our anniversary plans, we knew exactly where we wanted to go!

Breathtaking Beauty

We lived together as family those two weeks, and they introduced us to some of the breathtaking beauty of their world … things that are TOTALLY unfamiliar to MS flatlanders!

Things Like Snowcapped Mountains …

Snowballs and Sniffle Stations …

And Snow Covered Lakes!
Yes, we’re wearing short sleeves … McKenzie is even wearing shorts!
Believe it or not, the temp was in the upper 80’s this day.

There was lots of snow in the upper elevations, but in the lower elevations
the snow had melted, and the waterfalls were something to behold!

We were so fascinated by the beauty and number of waterfalls.
This one is called Brandywine.

Vic found lots of ways to keep us busy and to introduce us to the beauty of their home.
The trees on this trail were HUGE!

The moss and ferns on this trail were unbelievable!

And this girl was cute as pie!
But she was a MS variety, not a BC variety.

We were told that we MIGHT see a bear if we were lucky …
but God went above and beyond and let us see FIVE!

We EVEN found Sasquatch and learned that the rumor is true …
He REALLY does throw rocks at people, especially overly curious MS flatlanders!

As if the beauty of the land was not enough, we were taken on a ferry ride to the beautiful island of Victoria, the capitol of British Columbia. No matter where we traveled, the snow capped mountains were always within view.

As you can see, British Columbia is a land filled with natural beauty. These are only a few of the many photos we took of the area. You can see more by visiting our photo album. But as I mentioned earlier, BC does have a dark side … a spiritual darkness that is a result of the many gods which have been welcomed into the area. You can read about this in part two, Who Is Their God?

On His Exciting Journey,

Bro. Ray Spence scheduled two preachers (Bro. Tommy Brill and Bro. Wayne Squyres) to speak each night of the service. Pastor Ray says he loves Bible Conferences because we are able to get a week’s worth of preaching in just three days … and that we did! It was our first experience with ‘tag team preaching’, as we jokingly called it, but we loved it! We heard some very powerful sermons and felt a strong presence of the Holy Spirit. May the Lord continue the work He started in His people during this event.

Another thing I LOVE is to see children excited about church! I wish you could have seen the enthusiasm in these boys and girls as they came up for the children’s sermon Sunday morning. And on Sunday evening these same children lined up across the front of the church and sang a very tender song that touched my heart. I didn’t record all the words, but one line was particularly poignant. It was sung by a handsome young man, and it said,

“From a little boy with a single verse to a man who shares the ‘Light’,
Every Hallelujah, Lord, belongs to you!”

My heart melted into a puddle! And I learned, too, why Antioch’s adult choir is so good. They train them from a very young age. What a blessing to see how this church teaches their congregation to praise!

When I saw this framed display of the Ten Commandments at Antioch, I was reminded of the 2003 battle in Alabama where Chief Justice Roy Moore was removed from office for defying a federal judge’s order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the AL Supreme Court building. The Christian community was really upset about that court decision, but Benjy and I have been in a lot of churches since that time, and to the best of my memory, this is only the second church that has had any kind of display of the Ten Commandments.

We enjoyed sweet fellowship with the people of Antioch and the rest of the evangelistic team, and we thank Bro. Ray and Antioch Church for their generous hospitality. They feed us well every evening, and on Wed, we were treated to a fantastic lunch at the Country Kitchen, which is owned by one of the church members. Thanks again for a GREAT week Antioch!

On His Exciting Journey,

We arrived at Michael Memorial Baptist Church in Gulfport, MS well before the rest of the congregation in order to with meet the musicians and the audio/visual team to do a sound check. There are many details that need to be taken care of before a revival service, and the team at Michael Memorial have been so good to help us get everything in place so that the services run smoothly. Thanks guys for a job well done!

Poor McKenzie looks lonesome sitting there all by herself, doesn’t she? Not to worry … she was soon joined by a very large crowd. The Marvelous Mondays in July have been well attended, and we are enjoying the fellowship of our new friends at Michael Memorial.

Bro. Bill Safley, pastor of Michael Memorial, welcomes everyone to the revival. We are meeting each Monday evening at 7:00pm throughout the month of July. We have two great services behind us, and two great services ahead of us! Come join us if you can. Please visit the church website for more information about Michael Memorial and the guest speakers for Marvelous Mondays.

Benjy will be leading the praise service at Roseland Park in Picayune for the next two Sundays, then we are off to Antioch Baptist Church in Union, MS (near Jackson) for a revival the first week of August.

On His Exciting Journey,

We worshiped with our brothers and sisters at Roseland Park Baptist Church last weekend (visit Roseland Park online), and Benjy opened the morning services with a moving presentation of “Let Freedom Ring” then lead the congregation in “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” as part of their Independence Day Celebration. It was a beautiful service which included the Color Guard Presentation by the JROTC of Picayune High school, who displayed the flag of each of the five branches of our military plus the American flag and the MIA/POW flag.

A video was shown paying tribute to each branch of service and the JROTC Commander asked that anyone who had served in the military come stand by their respective flag, he then saluted and thanked each of the men and women for their service to our country.

Bro. Kriss Haymes followed the Color Guard’s presentation with a reading of Jefferson’s famous preamble:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Who can read those words and say that our forefathers did not believe in the God of creation? How have we become a nation that no longer bears the name of Holy God in a manner that reflects His nature? I’m sure there are many influencing factors, but after hearing Bro. Kriss’ sermon and considering the words and intent Jefferson’s preamble, two things come to my mind:

1. We have been more concerned about guarding our freedoms than guarding our faith.
2. We have been more concerned with pursuing our rights than performing our responsibilities.

We need to balance the books. It’s time we recognized that we are becoming a wasteful and weak nation because we have too long neglected our faith and our responsibilities. Psalm 33:12a says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD.” What is the Christian’s responsibility in helping our nation receive God’s blessings?

If My people who are called by My name [Christians] will …

1. humble themselves, and
2. pray and seek My face, and
3. turn from their wicked ways,

… then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
(2Chonicles 7:14 NKJV)

Benjy will be peaching at First Baptist Lumberton next Sunday morning and evening, then we will be back at Roseland Park for the last two Sundays of July. Roseland Park is currently without a Minister of Music. Would you pray with them as they seek God’s provision for this position? We will also be enjoying a month of Marvelous Mondays with Michael Memorial Baptist in Gulfport this month. Benjy will lead the praise and worship each service and there will be a special guest speaker each service … come join us!

On His Exciting Journey,

Here you see him explaining how it works to the music director of West Poplarville Baptist Church when we celebrated a special 5th Sunday service with them recently. Bro. Chuck was interested in knowing why Benjy kept taping the pulpit during the song service! Benjy says it’s really nice to have the volume control and play list available at the touch of a finger. He also has our ministry calendar, the entire Bible, and all his sermons … so he can preach or sing at a moment’s notice!

And here you see him showing off his new iPod to the youth at Union Baptist Church when he lead the music and preached for them last Wednesday. Union is without a youth pastor now that Bro. Shad Kennedy has been called to shepherd another youth group in Louisiana. Would you pray for our church as we seek to find God’s appointed leader for the youth department? And if you know of a youth minister who might be interested in applying for the position, have them contact the church office.

Benjy LOVES his new gadget, and we thank the Lord for providing it and a new set of cordless microphones for us. They have made his job so much easier. We also want to thank those of you who have donated to our ministry or prayed for us. God has used you to bless us and help us reach others with His Word.

On His Exciting Journey,